In celebration of the Year of Music, WUNC Music launched a new series that explored North Carolina music one song at a time called Come Hear NC on the Songs We Love. All year they asked people from the music community to talk about a song that said something about our home state. They brought in musicians, writers and club owners to talk about the songs they love with WUNC’s Eric Hodge. We highlighted six of our favorite episodes (listed alphabetically) below.
Laura Ballance is the bassist for Chapel Hill based rock band Superchunk and co-founder of the acclaimed Durham-based indie label Merge Records. Back in March she talked with Eric Hodge about Black Mountain native Roberta Flack’s “Compared to What.” Her first exposure to North Carolina music was in second grade when she heard her parent’s Roberta Flack First Take record, which features the track. “This song to me is an expression of that frustration and powerlessness that people were feeling at the time,” says Laura. “It's a protest song against the lack of progress in the civil rights movement and the general kind of political climate going on at that time."
Typical Songs We Love episodes clock in at around 10 minutes, but that just isn’t enough time to dive into all of North Carolina’s musical offerings. To close out the decade, North Carolina Arts Council Music Director Carly Jones joined hip-hop DJ Mir.I.Am and Eric Hodge to talk for an hour about how the last 10 years shaped North Carolina’s music scene.
Dom Flemons has made a name for himself as someone prepared to correct the record. His time with the Carolina Chocolate Drops saw the group reclaiming string band music for the people of color who helped define the genre, and on his most recent album, the Grammy-nominated Black Cowboys, he tells the story of the Black, Latino, and American Indian people who helped shape the Wild West. On this episode of Songs We Love, he talks to Eric Hodge about the often overlooked Pete Seeger tune “Cindy,” recorded with North Carolinians Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. He describes the song as, “Pete Seeger’s party dance mix in a type of way, with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.”
Come Hear North Carolina was the main stage sponsor for IBMA’s Wide Open Bluegrass, and in preparation for her performance and tribute set at the festival, Alice Gerrard chatted with WUNC about Elizabeth Cotten’s folk-staple “Freight Train.” Written when she was just a teenager, Gerrard describes the song as, “Simple, but it conjures up beautiful images of after death, hearing that train that you love, and the train is such a feature of Southern music."
Early in the year, Come Hear North Carolina launched the podcast series “Director’s Cut” which saw N.C. Arts Council Executive Director Wayne Martin sit down with producer Sandra Davidson to premiere and discuss field recordings collected over the last three decades. In this episode of Songs We Love, Wayne Martin brings his recording of Etta Baker and John Dee Holeman’s performance of “Crow Jane,” which features a rare moment of Etta Baker singing.
Come Hear North Carolina partnered with Hopscotch this year, helping them celebrate the festival’s 10th birthday. Before the festivities kicked off, Hopscotch director Nathan Price stopped by WUNC to talk about the North Carolina anthem “Raise Up” by Snow Hill’s Petey Pablo. The perfect song to start a party with, Nathan reminisces on what it felt like as a young North Carolinian to hear a chart-topping song dedicated to his home state.
Songs We Love is a weekly podcast series partnership between Come Hear NC and WUNC that explores North Carolina music one song at a time. Back in July, leading up to the MRG 30 Festival, Merge Records co-founder and Superchunk bassist Laura Ballance stopped in to talk about one of the label’s first singles – “Good and Dead” by the Raleigh based band Angels of Epistemology.
Give the full conversation a listen at WUNC.org and check out the song below!
Songs We Love is a weekly podcast series partnership between Come Hear NC and WUNC that explores North Carolina music one song at a time. Last week, for the 40th episode of the series, Executive Director of the North Carolina Arts Council Wayne Martin talks about a recording of the song "Pretty Fair Miss In A Garden" he made with fiddler Doug Wallin. He also talks about how the traditional music of North Carolina has resonated not only in our home state, but worldwide.
Give the conversation a listen at WUNC.org and check out the song below!
Songs We Love is a weekly podcast series partnership between Come Hear NC and WUNC that explores North Carolina music one song at a time. Last week, Kamara Thomas joined Eric Hodge to talk about Jonathan Wilson's song "Can We Really Party Today?"
Check out the whole episode here and listen to the song below.
Jonathan Wilson plays The Arts Center in Carrboro on Friday, October 25th.
We are throwing things back to 1991 with a performance of the song "Crow Jane" by Etta Baker and her friend and fellow guitarist John Dee Holeman. Listen to North Carolina Arts Council Executive Director Wayne Martin talk about the history of the recording on WUNC’s “Songs We Love:”
https://www.wunc.org/post/come-hear-nc-songs-we-love-etta-baker-john-dee...
Songs We Love is a weekly podcast series partnership between Come Hear NC and WUNC that explores North Carolina music one song at a time. On this episode Phil Cook throws things back to 1974 to discuss The Sensational Nightingales' classic gospel song “My Sisters and Brothers,” which you can listen to here.
Songs We Love is a weekly podcast series partnership between Come Hear NC and WUNC that explores North Carolina music one song at a time. This week, Jacob Sharp of Mipso tells us why he loves Doc Watson & David Grisman's version of the Gershwin classic "Summertime."
"I was reflecting on childhood memories of what a joyous and freeing time summertime was. Though written by people who had very few relationships with the south its been brought to life by people who do and I think it really speaks to the North Carolina summer freedom," says Sharp.
Mipso plays a homecoming show at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh on Saturday, August 31st.
Listen to the whole episode here and check out Doc Watson & David Grisman's cover of "Summertime" below.
Songs We Love is a weekly podcast series partnership between Come Hear NC and WUNC that explores North Carolina music one song at a time. On this episode from July, the WUNC Youth Reporting Team talks with Kamaya Truitt-Martin, subbing in for Eric Hodge, about the anthemic "North Cack" by G Yamazawa.
Follow this link to hear the conversation and check out the iconic music video below.
Songs We Love is a weekly podcast series partnership between Come Hear NC and WUNC that explores North Carolina music one song at a time. On this episode from February, Music Maker Relief Foundation co-founder Tim Duffy talks with Eric Hodge about "Cornbread And Butterbeans" from the Grammy Award winning album Genuine Negro Jig by The Carolina Chocolate Drops.
"Cornbread and butterbeans is a staple to a lot of old timers. With Music Maker Relief Foundation I've worked with a lot of elderly North Carolina artists and that's breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a lot of folks."
Follow this link to listen to the conversation and hear the song below.
Songs We Love is a weekly podcast series partnership between Come Hear NC and WUNC that explores North Carolina music one song at a time. On this episode from February, Yep Roc recording artist Tift Merritt talks with Eric Hodge about Townes Van Zandt's "Greensboro Woman."
Townes Van Zandt is often referred to as a 'songwriter's songwriter,' and Merritt says that 'Greensboro Woman' is a great example of why this is the case. Follow this link to listen to the conversation and hear the song below.